Narrative Transgression in Gog Nazr by Aziz Al-Shaabani: An Analytical Study of Dual Subversion—Narrative and Social—via Metanarrative Techniques.

Abstract

 This study examines the representation of marginalized groups in Gog Nazr, focusing on its use of Metafiction to deconstruct two parallel structures: social exclusion and traditional narrative form. The novel engages with Iraq’s political and social upheavals, some rooted in the Ottoman period, which have pushed many individuals into marginalization and moral collapse. The study argues that the novel does not portray the marginalized as passive figures, but grants them narrative agency that destabilizes the authority of the narrator and the storytelling system. Through exposing the mechanisms of writing, the narrative reveals a troubled narrative consciousness reflecting a crisis of meaning in Iraqi reality. The study also analyzes the novel’s fragmented language and structure as aesthetic strategies that parallel the subversion of political and cultural power. It concludes that Gog Nazr produces a dual critical discourse that exposes real-world marginalization while simultaneously undermining the certainty of the novelistic form, turning narrative into a subtle act of resistance.